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Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel made great points on Monday about BYU.

He threw in comments about Notre Dame, too.

Yeah, actually, it was the other way around.

But he's right, at least in a general sense.

Pinkel, whose team plays BYU at Arrowhead Stadium this fall, said while on a visit to ESPN that independents such as the Irish and the Cougars should have to be in a league and should have to win their league and their league's championship game to qualify for the college football playoff.

"I think all independents should join a conference, as a general rule," he said. "I didn't say Notre Dame in particular — everybody. You don't have independents in the NFL. Leagues are leagues. I just think it's difficult to assess a team that's not in a league."

He also said he thought the Irish should be given "a year to join a conference."

Pinkel's strongest point was that college football should be made competitively as even, as steady, as consistent as possible for every program vying at the highest levels.

"You have some people who don't play championship games because now they only have 10 teams (Big 12). I get that, but if down the road you really want to do it right, I think, everybody's in a league and everybody plays in a championship game, ideally."

Pinkel's ideas are complicated because college football has never universally fit the same form. It's never been homogenous. It's so immense, so vast in scope, and so economically uneven, that trying to throw a hat over all of it is a tough thing to do. That's how — and one of the reasons why — the college game fell into its ridiculous habit of identifying postseason opportunity and status — and for a long time, championships and titles themselves — by way of opinion polls and now a committee.

It should be uniform.

But just in calling for independents like Notre Dame, BYU and Army to play in a league, Pinkel is underestimating the hurdles standing in the way.

The Irish could join any conference they want. They already have a deal with the ACC to play a number of teams from that league annually, but, like Derek Jeter spinning through supermodel love interests, they do not want to be tied down to just one conference over the long haul.

BYU, conversely, would like to be included in a P-5 league, but can't seem to get invited. There are bridges that need to be crossed and logistics solved to make that happen, but from a competitive standpoint, from the evidence gleaned from long-term success on the field, BYU deserves that invitation. Anyone who believes the Cougars are not worthy of inclusion in a power league is either grinding an ax or deluding himself by shutting his eyes to what is plain to see.

The Cougars belong with the big boys. If they were to be invited into the Big 12, for instance, they'd likely get their heads slapped around for a minute. But their program would grow and, ultimately, find its proper place. The track record, the tradition, the stadium, the fan base, the emphasis, the resources, the wherewithal, the TV market are all there.

As is, if BYU had to join a conference to qualify for legitimate postseason opportunity, and none of the P-5 leagues invited it, does that mean the Cougars would have to go back to the Mountain West? In truth, as far as the CFB playoff goes, BYU's chances of ever making that field as an independent are pretty much nonexistent.

Pinkel is right that assessing a team playing outside a league when other candidates are playing in one is tough and unfair. There are all kinds of dynamics that mix into conquering annual foes, with familiarity and rivalries and league standings and emotions in play, that teams like Notre Dame and now BYU, even with an elevated slate of opponents, do not face. Those who solely point to strength of schedule for an independent often overlook those dynamics.

As for the fairness of some leagues playing championship games and others [Big 12] not playing them, that unjust discrepancy is so obvious, it takes straight-up stupid argumentative gymnastics for anybody to even begin to justify the Big 12's position.

Clearly, there are variances in quality of competition from league to league from year to year. It's never completely level, and that problem, as it pertains to playoff qualification, will be mitigated to some extent when the playoff grows from four teams to eight, growth that's inevitable. Then, the selection committee's job could be simplified by taking five league champions and three at-large teams. We'll see if it works out that way.

The more uniform the college game becomes, at least as it pertains to creating postseason opportunity, the better. It's complex and it will never be made completely just. There are unanswered questions about teams beyond the independents. What about accurately judging the Boise States and the Utah States and programs like that? Still, it can edge closer toward a suitable end.

In this hundred-acre wood, somebody should force Notre Dame into a P-5 league and somebody should let BYU into one. It's the right thing to do.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.